Koch Groups: Congress Should Let Expired Tax Breaks Die

Officials with two groups backed by the Koch brothers are asking Congress not to renew tax breaks that have expired, saying they do not give fair advantages to companies and businesses.

The breaks “provide special interest tax breaks and unfairly pick winners and losers by propping up select industries and companies over others,” the groups, Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce said Monday in a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., reports The Hill.

The provisions, or “extenders” expired at the end of 2017, and include breaks for several industries, including in motorsports, horse racing, and renewable energy.

Last week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said he has developed a package concerning which breaks he thinks Congress should renew, but he was not sure if members will want to address them while in a lame-duck session.

The Koch groups compared the tax breaks to the outcry about incentives given by New York and Virginia to attract Amazon, saying in their letter that “billions more that are up for renewal in the tax extender package are no different.”

Last week, Koch Industries also released a statement to lawmakers urging them to not renew the tax extenders.

However a group of businesses and groups, led by the coalition Alliance to Save Energy sent a letter to lawmakers last week asking them to update or renew the tax breaks for energy efficiency, saying they “stimulate economic activity by encouraging efficiency projects and upgrades in homes and buildings across the country while ensuring reduced energy consumption in the built environment for decades to come,” The Hill notes.